Ensuring vibrant wildlife on the East West Rail scheme
The East West Rail Alliance (EWRA) is overseeing the East West Rail project, a major railway scheme that will re-establish a disused rail link between Cambridge and Oxford to improve connections between East Anglia and central, southern and western England. We have concentrated our considerable capabilities on delivering several habitat-related services on Phases 1 and 2 in southern England.
Noteable milestones
- 2 km of palisade fencing
- 25 km of stock proof fencing
- 21 km of hedges planted (126,000 trees)
- 74,000 scrub plants installed on railway embankments
- 120,000 woodland and scrub plots planted into mitigation areas
- 500,000 m2 (50 hectares) – wild flower seed and marginal aquatic plugs installed
Protecting local species
Our teams have been mobilised to implement multiple services across different disciplines, including:
- creating access points and compounds for EWRA
- conducting archaeological surveys
- constructing numerous wildlife mitigation areas
- providing de-vegetation services for survey points and other parts of the line
- delivering habitat creation and ecological services
- fencing (permanent stock and steel fences)
- ongoing maintenance of fencing
- hydroseeding on parts of the upgraded line
- returning areas to working agricultural land.
Mitigation areas
The full extent of delivery on-site was diverse and multifaceted. Specifically, we have overseen the planting of more than 250,000 trees on the site, including the installation of a bat hedge that spans over 7 km in length as part of the mitigation scheme. Throughout the project, we created several receptor ponds for reptiles and amphibians and planted marginal aquatic and wetland seeds. We built numerous hibernacula for reptiles, installing 5 km of reptile fencing, 1000 refugia (reptile traps) and 1223 pitfall traps (newt traps).
We have created over 50 hectares of wild flower meadows using our excellent range of seeding machinery attachments (deep furrow plough, power harrow, seed drill and Cambridge roll). We ensured the longevity and health of the mitigation areas through several maintenance strategies, including mowing and collecting of wild flower seeds, controlling pernicious weeds through spot treatment and weed wiping and enacting a maintenance and replacement scheme for the trees and hedges.
We previously supported a principal contractor on the East West Rail scheme, undertaking vegetation clearance under ecological clerk of works (ECoW) supervision to facilitate engineering survey access. Our qualified arborist operatives carried out vegetation removal in environmentally sensitive areas, including steep rail embankments requiring specialist techniques.
We assisted with archaeological trial hole and excavation surveys in preparation for the construction of new structures on site and supplied qualified plant operatives to support the associated earthworks.
Project gallery
RSK collaboration
We later began collaborating with RSK Habitat Management on the same project. Multiple fencing teams were mobilised to install permanent stock fencing, post and rail and security fencing using specialist machinery, including a Protech Evo 1 post knocker and excavators fitted with auger and post-driver attachments.
As the project progressed, we supported the handback of work areas to agricultural use and subsequently undertook large-scale seasonal tree planting works. Our teams have continued to support delivery across multiple phases of the East West Rail project, providing ecological, fencing, planting and land reinstatement services.